U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley was determined to hold a Security Council
April 18, 2017.
meeting on the importance of human rights to international peace and security and
it will happen on Tuesday — but only after the U.S. addressed objections from Russia,
China and other council members.
Haley told reporters at the start of the U.S. presidency of the U.N.'s most powerful body in
early April that she wanted a meeting that didn't "point fingers at anyone" but looked at
underlying human rights issues that lead to conflict and unrest.
As examples, she cited student protests against Syrian President Bashar Assad that
sparked the sixyear conflict, the selfimmolation of a Tunisian fruit vendor who was
harassed by police and not able to work that sparked nationwide demonstrations, and
massive rights violations in North Korea.
But Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador Petr Iliichev took issue with the premise of the
proposed debate saying: "A general statement that international peace and security are
threatened by human rights violations is not true."
He also argued that other U.N. bodies including the Genevabased Human Rights Council
and the General Assembly already deal with human rights. "Why are we taking everything
to the Security Council? Then those bodies should be dismantled," Iliichev said.
Haley said the U.S. wanted the debate on April 18, with SecretaryGeneral Antonio
Guterres briefing
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